Slide Show: Children in Nicaragua Up Against Difficult Odds

Eight-month-old Kesler is one of those infectiously happy babies who giggles at everything, even when his mother is scolding him for being too loud.

Kesler lives with his mother, Delma Marina Sala, in a one-room, tin-roofed home outside of Managua, Nicaragua. Every month since he was born, Sala has had to rush Kesler to the hospital at least once because of diarrhea so severe she worried he would die from dehydration. Her fears were not unwarranted: diarrheal disease is one of the main causes of death for young children in the country.

Friday night on the NewsHour, Ray Suarez will explore efforts to fight another major threat–the deadly lung infection pneumonia. Children in Nicaragua face difficult odds to survive and prosper into their young adult years. They are 44 percent more likely to die before their fifth birthdays than the Latin American average, according to the World Health Organization. Learn more about these challenges in the slide show above.

PBS NewsHour allows open commenting for all registered users, and encourages discussion amongst you, our audience. However, if a commenter violates our terms of use or abuses the commenting forum, their comment may go into moderation or be removed entirely. We reserve the right to remove posts that do not follow these basic guidelines: comments must be relevant to the topic of the post; may not include profanity, personal attacks or hate speech; may not promote a business or raise money; may not be spam. Anything you post should be your own work. The PBS NewsHour reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the comments or emails that we receive. By submitting comments, you agree to the PBS Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which include more details.